Sonar search set for Saturday for Surrey man who went missing at Chilliwack Lake

There is no sign of the 18-year-old man from Surrey who disappeared underwater in Chilliwack Lake Tuesday afternoon after trying to retrieve a drifting boat.

RCMP and Search and Rescue were called on-scene, but by Wednesday morning the search had been scaled back.

Chilliwack Search and Rescue had conducted short-line searches in the shallow water at the southeast end of Chilliwack Lake, said CSAR search manager Dan McAuliffe.

They also waded in chest high with masks and snorkels searching for the missing man, but to no avail.

“It is really sad for his parents and friends,” McAuliffe said.

The RCMP’s Underwater Recovery Team is expected at this point to return to the lake on Saturday with sonar equipment to conduct a methodical search and recovery.

“We determined there was nothing further we could do,” McAuliffe said.

They found the fibreglass motor boat that the man was trying to retrieve about a kilometre away.

The missing man’s friends pointed out the spot in the lake that he went under. The depth sounder indicated to the SAR team that the entry point in the lake was at about 30 metres deep.

“They are now trying to get the friend of the man back to the lake for Saturday, in order to provide more accurate information about which spot he might have went in,” the SAR member said.

It was the first boat-related rescue call from Chilliwack Lake that CSAR members attended in a number of years. A few years they pulled a paraglider who had crashed into the lake, and over the years they recovered three motorists after vehicles had been driven into the lake.